What Does Regenerative Organic Mean?

The word "regenerative" has gone loose. Like a lot of industry language, it's been co-opted, and it now shows up on everything from a single soil practice to a corporate sustainability pledge to ad campaigns with no farming behind them. Consumers end up unsure what it means, how it's done, or who, if anyone, checked.

Several regenerative certifications exist in North America, and each takes its own approach. The Savory Institute's Land to Market verifies ecological outcomes on grazing land through Ecological Outcome Verification. A Greener World's Certified Regenerative builds on existing animal welfare and organic certifications. Regenified and the Real Organic Project are two more.

Teaberry holds Regenerative Organic Certified®, a standard set by the Regenerative Organic Alliance. It requires USDA Organic as its base, then adds three pillars that an independent certifier audits: soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness. Here's what that means on a working farm, why we chose it, and how it compares.

Where Regenerative Organic Certified® Came From

The certification grew out of decades of organic research. In 1942, J.I. Rodale started Organic Farming and Gardening magazine in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, and helped popularize organic farming across the US. In 1981, the Rodale Institute began its Farming Systems Trial, which has compared organic and conventional farming side by side ever since.

The certification has grown fast. Today, more than 500 farms and ranches and over 55,000 smallholder farmers hold it, across more than 22 million acres worldwide. The Regenerative Organic Alliance's goal is to bring 10 million more acres into regenerative organic agriculture by 2030.

So it says a lot that Rodale didn't stop at organic. In 2017, the Rodale Institute, Patagonia, and Dr. Bronner's led the coalition that created Regenerative Organic Certified®, a standard built on top of USDA Organic to cover three areas organic doesn't fully address. The Regenerative Organic Alliance, a nonprofit, sets that standard today.

USDA Organic does a lot. It bans synthetic pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and GMOs, and it requires third-party verification. It doesn't go as far on soil health, animal welfare, or how workers are treated. Regenerative Organic Certified® adds requirements for all three.

A farm can't hold the certification without first holding USDA Organic. It builds on organic and never replaces it.

The Three Pillars

Soil health. Building soil organic matter, structure, and microbial life over time. Practices include cover cropping, minimal tillage, diverse rotations, and integrated livestock where it fits.

Animal welfare. Pasture-based livestock, no CAFOs, suitable shelter, enough space, low-stress handling, and humane transport. The certification's animal welfare module is built on the Five Freedoms framework.

Social fairness. Living wages for farm workers, freedom of association, safe working conditions, and records open enough for auditors to verify all of it. USDA Organic doesn't address how workers are treated, so the certification adds it.

An independent certifier audits every pillar every year. The certification has 3 tiers: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The tiers reflect how much of a farm's producing land is certified and how many regenerative practices are required. Gold means all of a farm's producing land is certified, with the most demanding practices.

How the Certification Differs From "Regenerative" Used Loosely

The biggest difference is the audit. A product or farm can call itself "regenerative," "regenerative-style," or "regenerative-aligned" with no outside check. Anyone can make that claim. Regenerative Organic Certified® requires a third party to verify it.

Here's what the certification requires that a self-declared "regenerative" claim doesn't have to:

A USDA Organic base. A self-declared claim needs no base at all.
No synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, ever. A self-declared claim sets no such limit.
No CAFOs. Without a standard, nothing rules them out.
Animal welfare requirements built on the Five Freedoms. An unaudited label can stay silent on welfare.
Living wages and fair treatment for workers. An unverified claim never has to mention the people doing the work.
An independent audit every year, so someone outside the farm checks all of the above.

Serious farms do real regenerative work without this certification, including farms verified through Land to Market, Regenified, or certified through A Greener World. We believe regenerative organic is the gold standard because it measures what a farm gives back: to the soil, to the animals, and to the people who work the land. And every year, an independent auditor holds us to it. When the standard matters to you, the certification is how you can check.

What the Certification Requires of a Farm

The full standard runs dozens of pages. In short, a farm has to:

Hold USDA Organic certification, or an international equivalent.
Hold a recognized animal welfare certification, such as Animal Welfare Approved, or meet the certification's animal welfare module directly.
Hold a recognized social fairness certification or meet the social fairness pillar directly.
Pass an audit every year by an approved certifying body.
Send soil to a lab for testing at the first application and every 3 years after that.
Document every practice that meets the three pillars.

Teaberry holds Regenerative Organic Certified®, and our certifiers audit us against the standard every year. We hold Animal Welfare Approved for our animal care and USDA Organic for our operations. Together, those three certifications are how we describe and verify the work this farm does every day.

Why We Hold It

We've watched this happen before. The USDA Organic seal launched in October 2002, and the next year, 47% of Americans said they'd seen it. Today it's the most recognized certification consumers look for. They trust it because it's independently audited, verifiable, and trustworthy, and it still is.

Regenerative Organic Certified® is where USDA Organic was 20 to 25 years ago. Fewer people know the mark today, and more find it every year. In August 2023, about 140 farms held the certification. By October 2026, 548 certified farms and ranches worldwide, along with 388 brands and 3,215 certified products, were certified. It earns trust the same way the organic seal did: an independent audit, a published standard, and a record anyone can check.

We hold it for accountability. The annual audit makes us better, and the benchmarks show us where our work is solid and where it needs to go further.

The Regenerative Organic Alliance publishes the full framework, the directory of certified producers, and its audit methods at regenorganic.org. To see what the certification looks like day to day on one farm, keep reading the Journal.

Sources

Rodale Institute. "75 Years of Organic Leadership." Accessed October 2026. Read source.
Rodale Institute. "Farming Systems Trial: 40-Year Report." Read report.
Regenerative Organic Alliance. "Framework for Regenerative Organic Certified®," version 4.1, effective June 27, 2023. Read framework.
Regenerative Organic Alliance. Homepage counts of certified farms, brands, and products. Accessed October 2026. Visit website.
Regenerative Organic Alliance. "Our Story" (2030 goal of 10 million additional acres). Accessed October 2026. Read source.
Congressional Research Service. "Organic Agriculture in the United States: Program and Policy Issues" (RL31595). 2003. Read report.
Supermarket News. "More Consumers Recognize Organic Seal" (Organic Trade Association survey by RoperASW). June 30, 2003. Read article.
The Packer. "OTA survey: Organic ranks highest in consumer recognition" (Organic Trade Association and Euromonitor). 2024. Read article.